After eight months of charitable cooking, the chefs behind the ambitious 48 Nights project recently put the popular weekly event to bed.
Dallas restaurateurs Chris Jeffers, Chris Zielke and Tim Byres raised more than $100,000 for charity by offering mystery chef BYOB dinners on Monday and Tuesday nights. To mark the 48th and final edition, organizers invited seven local chefs to contribute seven courses, a feat made more remarkable by the size of the kitchen: The tiny venue houses just a small grill, a few burners, two fryers and an oven, which once exploded while Abraham Salum was working. ("It was all for the charity and not about me," said Salum, who ended up in the emergency room.)
The final night featured chefs Randall Copeland from Ava (handmade duck sausage, Rocky's Greens, Marcona almonds with a cherry reduction), Nathan Tate from Ava (butter poached lobster with handmade mushroom and marscapone ravioli and a fennel puree), Kelly Hightower from Nova (seared foie gras and scallops with a Kabocha squash puree), Jeff Harris from Craft (sweetbreads with Jerusalem artichoke, applewood bacon and mushrooms), David Uygur from the soon-to-open Lucia (handmade spaghetti with a spicy nduja sausage and a sous-vide egg), Tim Byers from Smoke (spicy lamb meatball, smoked hot lamb link, and a grilled lamb loin with preserved lemon and roasted shisito pepper), and Marc Cassel and Keith Cedotal from (Lucifer cake and banana cream cheese icing and strawberry-ginger foam.)
Recapping the nearly yearlong event over celebratory drinks, chefs determined Randall Copeland had logged the most hours in the 48 nights kitchen. He may not want to pack his knives just yet: Chris Zielke assures City of Ate that there's another similar event in the works.
Make the jump for more photos of 48 Nights:
